The investigation started back in 2011 and ended just last week with the arrest of Agent Gilbert Lam. It was a lengthy investigation. Lam was caught by San Jose police officers assigned to the task force on Internet crime against children. Since he lived in San Francisco, they turned the case over to police there.

A homeland security officer at San Francisco International Airport has been charged with distributing and possessing child pornography, authorities said Friday. Gilbert Lam, 37, of San Francisco was arrested last Saturday after an investigation uncovered at least 80 video files on his home computer and other electronic devices, some involving children under age 10, said Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the San Francisco district attorney. Authorities say Lam swapped child-porn files online. None of the charges involves Lam’s work at the airport. Lam, a uniformed officer at San Francisco International, is still employed with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Officer Frank Falcon, a customs spokesman in San Francisco.

Gilbert Lam, 37, was arrested last Saturday and will be arraigned on March 26 on two felony charges of distributing and possession of child pornography, San Francisco District Attorney’s Office spokesman Alex Bastian said. The investigation began in August 2011 when San Jose police began a child porn investigation and eventually identified Lam, a San Francisco resident, as a suspect. They contacted San Francisco police and authorities served search warrants at Lam’s home, confiscating several electronic devices, Bastian said. More than 80 child porn videos were found in the suspect’s possession, including ones of children younger than 10 years old, according to Bastian.

[Gilbert] Lam’s arrest came after San Jose cops raided his home in 2011. The San Jose-based Internet crimes task force, which is set up to bust Internet users who dabble in kiddie porn, found 80 videos of child pornography after a forensic search was performed on “computers, hard drives, and electronic media” located in his bedroom, according to authorities. He’s accused of possessing the videos in question as well as distributing them via the Internet, through BitTorrent or other methods. It’s not yet known how Lam landed on authorities’ radar initially, or why it took over a-year-and-a-half after the raid for police to arrest him. Since Lam is a federal employee, the case was turned over to the local U.S. Attorney’s Office, which kicked the case back to local cops. The case was back in the laps of San Francisco police on Feb. 28, and a warrant for Lam’s arrest was issued on March 7; he was arrested two days later.

Gilbert Lam, 37, was arrested last Saturday and will be arraigned on March 26 on two felony charges of distributing and possession of child pornography, San Francisco District Attorney’s Office spokesman Alex Bastian said. The investigation began in August 2011 when San Jose police began a child porn investigation and eventually identified Lam, a San Francisco resident, as a suspect. They contacted San Francisco police and authorities served search warrants at Lam’s home, confiscating several electronic devices, Bastian said.